Jan 18 Phonetic Patterns: transcribe one of your poems using International Phonetic Alphabet, color code the patterns and create a visual work out of the result (a painting, rug, sweater, etc. Read excerpts of Mary Carruthers The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200.

Jan 25 Simple Scaffolds: Acrostics, Telestics, and Mesostics.

Feb 1 Early Western Pattern Poetry: Greek and English Eggs and Altars, including George Herbert’s The Temple. Assignment: Compose a poem sequence that is a house or a sanctuary.

Feb 8 Viewing Day: Visit to the Metropolitan Museum: Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Cuneiform, Islamic Rugs. Make your own language. Take the pattern of a Persian rug and use it as the formula for a poem. Suggested reading: The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry by Ernest Fenollosa.